Oscar trivia

Hilary Swank is the second actress to win an Oscar for playing a member of the opposite sex - do you know who the other one was? Test your knowledge with our fun Oscar facts

• Actress Sylvia Miles holds the record for the shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar. Her role as a New York hooker in Midnight Cowboy (1969) lasted only 6 minutes.

• Katherine Hepburn holds the current record for winning the most Oscars. The glamorous star of movie classics, including The African Queen (1951), won a grand total of four Best Actress statues.

• During World War II, Oscar winners were presented with statues made from plaster instead of gold, in public recognition of the war effort.

• The longest Oscar Award ceremony on record was in 2001, when proceedings lasted record 256 minutes, 16 minutes longer than the previous record.

• The first non-Hollywood movie to win Best Picture was the 1948 production of Henry V, starring Laurence Olivier and Jean Simmonds, which was made in the UK.

• Alfred Hitchcock was nominated for the Best Director award five times but never won.

• In 1999 Hilary Swank became the second actress to win an Oscar for playing a member of the opposite sex (Boys Don't Cry). The first was Linda Hunt, who played a man alongside Mel Gibson in The Year Of Living Dangerously (1983).

• The only sequel to ever win a Best Picture Oscar was The Godfather II in 1974. Peter Jackson could be about to follow suit with his spectacular sequel to Lord Of The Rings, The Two Towers.

• The only horror film to ever win an Oscar for Best Picture was Silence of the Lambs in which Anthony Hopkins earned a Best Actor Oscar for his chilling portrayal of Hannibal 'the cannibal' Lecter.

• The first black actor to win an Oscar was Sidney Poitier, who picked up the award for his performance in Lilies Of The Field (1963).

• Director Steven Spielberg bought Clark Gable's 1934 Best Actor Oscar for It Happened One Night, for the bargain price of $550,000 in 1996.

• When Walt Disney picked up his award from Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs in 1938, he was also presented with seven mini statues.

• Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple was nominated for 11 Oscars in 1985 but despite its great critical acclaim, it failed to win even one.

• The two movies that hold the current record for winning the most awards are Ben Hur (1959) and Titanic (1997). Both picked up an impressive eleven awards.